THE HUNTER
by Stormy1
Summary: A day of hunting for Roxton


Arthur's disclaimer: all characters used in this story belong to Telescene Productions  
Story by Stormy-all rights reserved  
THE HUNTER  
  
The jungle was in transition. The creatures who lived during the night were retiring from their foraging as the rising sun was calling out the creatures of the daylight. From forty feet up in a well-branched tree, Roxton watched and made mental notes of how the lost world lived. Using Challenger's spyglass he saw that some birds never seemed to go more than a few feet below the tree top canopy and others fly only in shadows. He noticed how their coloring blended well with the greenery making it difficult for him to see them, but that was how the birds survived here. There were few pterodactyl and they seemed to be barely getting by, all scrawny and scared as they were. A possible changing of the sky guard, he mused. Anything seemed to be possible on this damn plateau.  
Veronica had a tremendous knowledge of the jungle, but the hunter and leader in him wanted to learn this jungle firsthand. At least he had thought it was the hunter in him, but the longer he stayed up in the tree, the more he saw he realized that it was the lord and brother side of John Roxton that had demanded him to come out in to the jungle alone. Away from the comforts and company of the others he could begin to learn what he would need from the jungle to get everyone home safely. Or at least those who wanted to go back to England.  
He had found it very easy to like and respect Veronica. She enjoyed her life in the jungle. In a way, she loved the jungle, her home. And he also found that the expedition was relying on her too much for her own good. When the explorers had crashed landed on the plateau, she had taken on the responsibility of keeping them alive. Roxton had no illusions about how much they owed Veronica. Too many times she had saved the members of the expedition. And the strain was starting to show. It may also have been brought to the surface by the preparations they were making to leave her world. The looking after of five adults with such diverse personalities would overwhelm any man Roxton knew, including himself. He wanted to lift as much of her burden from her shoulders as possible. To be on your own for eleven years as she had; to not only survive but to grow and prosper as she had; to be mentally and emotionally sane through all eleven years was, he felt on a par with leading a nation through a war or running some business empire. And those men always had help.  
As the birds continued to swoop and dive about, Roxton looked back at the lack of thought he had put in to the supplying the expedition. Why hadn't he brought along more ammo? Or make sure that everyone had a compass? Or a radio transmitter? Oh, how the big game hunter had so blithly assumed that this jungle would be the same as either the African or Indian jungles that he had hunted and lived in since he was a young man. Haven't you learned anything at all in the years that you spent hunting? What about your brother's death? Expect the unexpected! This is the rule that keeps you alive. You know this  
That he had so poorly prepared them weighted heavily on his mind. He had been wrong, very wrong. Add in his recklessness at jumping in to whatever fight came along, right or wrong. Now in the growing light of this day, it seemed that many of the adventures he had been in were little more than the frivols attempts of a young lad trying to prove himself a man and hero to all. Roxton knew that he could no longer behave as he had been.  
Roxton also understood that there was no way he could learn everything about this jungle . He had been stubborn in his belief that all jungles were the same. Too much time wasted he thought. Veronica had been born here; she probity could not even verbalize everything she knew about her home. But he, Lord Roxton the Hunter, could use most of his skills and knowledge to learn about this jungle. He would adapt his ways to this jungle and share the burdens the explorers had imposed on Veronica.  
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Marguerite was just waking up from very pleasant dreams of a man giving her a fortune in diamonds with no hidden strings on them. Her eyes were closed as she snuggled deeper into the warmth of her bed. She could hear someone moving around in the main room of the Treehouse. Whoever it was, they were feeding the fire, making the house warm in the predawn chill. For a moment she wondered who it might be, but the warmth that filled her room lulled her back to sleep. If she had stayed awake, Marguerite would have heard Roxton move aside the beaded curtain of the doorway and open her eyes to see him smile gently at her. She might also have heard the rumble and squeak of the elevator going down and coming back up  
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Roxton heard the soft sound of ferns being brushed aside. He looked down from his makeshift blind in the tree to see what Challenger would call a medium sized plant eater. But to Roxton the slow moving beast was still huge and pound for pound easily out weighted a full-grown African bull elephant. The beast moved with a slow deliberate pace, like a cow grazing. The move he watched, the more he began to understand. Beyond this lone grazer, the rest of the herd was also grazing. He did not even try to count the number of the herd; too many of them were behind trees or large ferns. Where one began, it seemed another began. He thought of the herds of zebra on the African plains.  
At first he chided himself for not hearing the herd of beasts sooner. And they were making sounds. Sounds of moving and snorting. Sounds of calling to each other. He wondered if he was letting his ears become lazy in this jungle, not hearing what the jungle was telling him. Where the beast's calling out in warning or hunger or mating or in morning for a lost member. That the cries sounded like that of the elephants made him wonder if he was making a mistake in associating the two creatures too closely. They simply had to be as different as they could be. Below him, the plant eater had begun to move closer to the body of the head in its slow deliberate pace without stopping to eat another mouthful.   
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"Look, all I'm saying is that I'm not certain that we should go after him" Marguerite stated as she sat down. She did not quite understand why she was defending Roxton' recklessness. After all, hadn't the Lord of the Hunt given all of them, including Veronica, lectures about how deadly the jungle was to anyone out there alone, gun or no gun? But the small but strong voice inside her told her not to worry so; John was out there doing whatever it was he felt he needed to do. And could only do alone  
The voice she listened to was the same voice that Roxton called her "self preservation instinct". But Marguerite knew it as the voice of her fickle guardian that had always led her to safety. Like the time it had directed her into the building where a meeting held by a society of scientists was taking place. It was the guardian speaking through her that announced to the scientific society that she would fully fund their expedition. And later in the private meeting to finalize the expedition explained to the expedition volunteers that the only string attached was that she would be accompanying them on this journey into the unknown. Where her money went, she went.  
It was also her ticket out of England. Although she knew she could have bribed and blackmailed her way out of the mess in the alleyway, she did not want to wear out her welcome in England so soon. She knew that her value to the British government was of limited value, as any good businessman would know. And all to soon, there would be another hunter after her and another one after that. Marguerite did not want to have a trail of corpuses to explain to the British government. And if certain people in the German government really wanted to kill her, she would not make it easy for them.   
"How can you be so cold blooded? How can you just sit there? All the times he saved your life and you just sit there doing nothing! We can't just leave him out there alone and defenseless! We have to do something." Veronica pleated with the group of explorers. She was scared. How was she supposed to keep them alive on her own? What was Roxton thinking? It was easy to look after herself, but doing so for five people was impossible for her to keep doing.  
And now Marguerite's attitude pushed her just too far. Veronica started towards the arrogant heiress. She did not know what she was going to do to her, but she would do something about her attitude."  
"Now, now, my dear. Please listen to Marguerite" Summerlee said as he blocked Veronica's path. "John is a hunter equal to yourself. You know this. And he would never go out there unarmed." He looked at Marguerite with sympathy "would he Marguerite?"  
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As Roxton was letting mind wonder deep in thought, a cloud of steam enveloped him. He froze, heart pounding against his ribs hard, almost painful. Carefully, moving slowly and not very much, the hunter looked down on four raptors. And these had something different about them. What it was, he could not tell right away. So he watched them.  
One seemed to be in the lead, pushing the others around. The leader sent the three other raptors off in different directions to circle around there chosen prey. Veronica swore that raptors almost never hunted in anything but packs of three when Challenger and Summerlee told their tale of the encounter they had with the raptors that seemed to have learned to avoid the barrels of their guns when aimed at them. A debate fallowed about weather or not the raptors had demonstrated that they had the capacity to learn and if that mend that they had some sort of intelligence. Roxton had ended the discussion by proclaiming that all raptors were dumb reptiles ruled by the most basic of instincts and nothing more than bloody nuisances. Now he wondered if he should have let Challenger and Summerlee continue their debate as the pack below him moved forward I their hunt.  
The leader was larger than any of the raptors that Roxton had hunted for food or killed in self-defense. The other three were also a bit larger than average. All four were lacking the scars that most raptors had. With so little marring on their hides he wondered if he should skin one and make a new vest or maybe a new purse for Marguerite. Who knows he mused, she could start a new fashion trend in London and make them some money.  
But the lack of marring also said something else. These raptors seemed to fight amongst themselves less. For such basic animals that would turn cannibal at the droop of another's blood, these four seemed somehow strange to Roxton. Deadlier and more cunning came to mind as a chill crept up his back.  
The four predators slowly moved a weak animal away from the heard. There was no loud noises or chaos forming chasing the victim. No, not these four, these raptors had smarts and patience to quietly move their next meal to a spot where the kill would be easy. Maximum gain for minimal investment.  
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Summerlee's question caught Marguerite off guard. The flash of surprise changed to a look of anger. Somehow, Summerlee must have seen her go into John's room.  
But Summerlee did not see or need to see Marguerite go to John's Room. He knew she would have searched the hunter's room, top to bottom looking for his rifle, pistol and the backpack that he always carried his ammo in. She would have done this as soon as Challenger had said that John was not in the Treehouse. He also knew that if John had gone out into the jungle unarmed, Marguerite would be out there tearing the jungle apart until she found him. Whatever John was up to, Summerlee knew the man would have hell to pay when he answered to Miss Krux, never mind the rest of the group.  
The devious part of Summerlee that showed itself so rarely, looked forward to the coming battle. He had noted of late that their arguments were based off of a caring for each other rather than two predators trying to exploit the others weaknesses. Some of their sparing, when at its gentlest, reminded Summerlee of the courtship between Anna and himself. And of how he missed and longed for her teasing and laughter. How truly empty London was became more and more apparent the long he stayed in on this plateau. John and Marguerite were coming together not just out of need, but love.  
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The four raptors made short work of their victim. As Roxton watched them feed their pecking order went on display. The largest one feed first, but then two baby raptors came out from hiding in the undergrowth. At least he assumed that they were babies. They both seemed to be about the same size, about four feet tall. They looked like exact copies of the leader. While the babies gorged themselves, the three other adults meekly waited off to one side under the watchful gaze of the leader. When the babies had their fill they moved off with the leader back into the undergrowth leaving the others to feed. The three adults attacked the carcass with the usual ferocity of the raptors that Roxton knew from he's experience with the beasts. The more he watched them the more worrying they became to him. The leader was obliviously "mummy". The other adults were possibly kin to her.  
The deceptive peacefulness that was begging to decent on the jungle was shattered by the bellow of a t-rex. A very hungry t-rex if that bellow was anything to go by, Roxton thought. Roxton ducked further down behind his suddenly flimsy seeming blind. As an extra precaution he crushed a hand full of leaves and rubbed them over himself, hoping to mask his scent. Moving higher up the tree flicked through his mind; immediately discarded as too risky. Instead, he made small adjustments to the branches around him. Roxton had learned well enough that one did not want to draw the attention of a t-rex if at all possible.  
The t-rex seemed to be on the hunt of an easy meal. Just come into a clearing with a fresh kill and bully the little buggers away from their meal. This was going to be an interesting meeting for the student Roxton.  
Instead of running away, the raptors held their ground. And Mummy, as Roxton called her, reemerged from wherever she had been with the little ones. The t-rex bellowed again, this time straight at Mummy. Without flinching, Mummy took a step towards the invader. Clearly, she was not about to back down from this unwelcomed guest. She hissed at the other raptors as they unwillingly began to circle around the t-rex. Appearently, Mummy's bite was far worse than anything the t-rex could do to them. The pack's actions confused the t-rex. Obviously, the t-rex was used to having it's own way without any objections. Once again the t-rex bellowed at Mummy, but did not move forward. Then, as suddenly as it had come into the feeding area, the t-rex, with a last bellow at the raptors, turned tail and left.  



End file.
